MLB The Show 17
Summary MLB The Show 17 is the continuing game series made by Sony. Story The 30 Major League Baseball Teams compete for the coveted title of World Champion. Game Modes Road to The Show Create your own player and build him up in the minors so he can make it to the majors and become one of MLB's greatest players in this mode. Franchise Mode Choose your favorite team and have it compete against other treams in their division and others for the World Series trophy. Diamond Dynasty Use players that you have collected (via baseball cards) and create your very own team and compete against other teams in this mode. Play Now Either play singly or Online one game of your choosing of teams in this mode. Retro Mode New to the game, play the game as like in a Super NES Baseball game in this mode. Option Mode Modify the game vis the difficulty sliders, MLB Rosters, screen display and music in this mode. Marketplace Purchase stubs (the game's currency) and buy certain baseball cards, RTTS equipment, Franchise Sponors and more. Johnny's Reviews General Thoughts As being a Baseball fan, I had to play this game, especially with some of the new features and gameplay dynamics it had. Graphics The Graphics only have a small tweaking from the previous games. The lighting and shadowing effects have received a massive overhaul from previous installments as they are now more realistic, you also see some new character animations as well as the players are now a bit more......silly than they were in previous MLB The Show games (especially before and even after winning a game). In Road to the Show and Franchise mode, there are games that can be watched vis MLB Network and sometimes (when you hit a home run) they can track your home run on "Show Track" where they tell the velocity, angle and even the distance of your jack. 'Grade: '''B+ Music As usuall the game comes with a different soundtrack, and it has a bit more rock and roll tracks than the previous installments have (which is a small plus) but if you don't like the game's chosen soundtrack, you can always put your own favorite sdongs into the game via an External hardrive. '''Grade: '''C+ Sounds/Voice The sounds effects of the game also changed little since the previous installments, though you hear louder cracks of the bat in this game, but other than that the sounds are pretty much the same. The voices are quite different though, especially the announcers. Matt Vasgersian returns (as usual) with some new things to say, but joining him in this game are some new cats in the form of Harold Reynolds and Dan Pleisack also with some new things to say. '''Grade: '''A- Gameplay/Controls The gameplay has also received a good change. The ball trajactory dynamics have been tweaked, making it more difficult (or easier) to actually catch the ball in some situations, for instance if you are a first or third baseman and if a ball is hit down the foul line, instead of it being perfectly straight (like in previous installments) it can actually go away from you and still be ruled a fair ball, or if a batter pops up a ball on the infield it can be in fair territory instead of just in foul territory. Road to The Show also has a brand new dynamics, in this game your player sometimes needs to interact with certain people such as scouters, the team coaches, the team's manager, the media and even (at some time) your player's agent, depending on how you respond to what they say to you will depend on how they think about you. At the RTTS menu acreen will also show your current team's clubhouse (which is lively after winning a game, but quiet after losing a game) and even a display where you see made up social media pages such as the news and fans from your current team and rival teams. There is also a new game mode: ''Retro Mode where you can play one game with the same style of some Baseball games from the Super NES (minus the clunky gameplay). The controls have changed little as well, of course you can change it to your style of gameplay, in RTTS you can also use the "Show Time" mode where you can slow down certain aspects of the game like to see the pitch better or to make a great fielding play. '''Grade: '''A+ Replay Value There are many game modes to play in this game, especially the new Retro Mode. There is also the Marketplace (which you can access at any time by pressing the retangle button on your PS4 controller) and you can purchase stubs (the game's currency) where you can buy more baseball cards to either collect or use in Diamond Dynasty, or you can buy special euipment for your RTTS player (which gives him a boost in his abilities) or buy sponsors that will add to your payroll in Franchise Mode if your players meet up to the sponsors' expectations. '''Grade: '''A Final Thoughts With all of these new features and tweaks to the game, it may seem like the best MLB game yet. It may well be as it feels more realisitic than previous installments, though there are some shortcomings, with the more interactive RTTS it removed some freedom from previous installments such as being able to select a team after the Prologue (e.g., the Bowman Scout Day and Topps' Amateur Showcase games) forcing you to participate in the draft, it also removed career decisions such as to play a different possition or be traded to another team or to even retire when you want. But if you don't mind these features being removed and/or you can deal with it then it is a good baseball game. '''Overall Grade: '''B-